Yandow stuns York selectmen with resignation announcement

YORK, Maine — To a stunned Board of Selectmen and audience, Town Manager Rob Yandow announced Monday he would be resigning his position on the tentative date of Friday, Oct. 3.

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By Susan Morse

seacoastonline.com

By Susan Morse

Posted Jan. 14, 2014 at 2:00 AM

By Susan Morse

Posted Jan. 14, 2014 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

YORK, Maine — To a stunned Board of Selectmen and audience, Town Manager Rob Yandow announced Monday he would be resigning his position on the tentative date of Friday, Oct. 3.

Yandow's contract with the town expires in November 2015. He has been town manager in York since 2005.

He made the announcement at the end of his manager's report.

"I would like to announce (with a) tentative date of Oct. 3, I will be resigning my position in York and retiring after 42 years in local government," Yandow said.

Board of Selectmen Chairman Ron Nowell said, "That's a stunner."

The board had no further discussion on the matter.

Nowell had said shortly after being elected in May and becoming chairman that the town manager should be terminated for just cause due to the stalled police station project. Asked whether Yandow's decision meant he would continue or drop that planned course of action, Nowell said, "Solves the problem."

Yandow was asked whether Nowell's statement about his job was the reason for his decision.

Yandow said he made the decision to leave almost a year ago.

"On Jan. 29, 2013, I reached the conclusion that I did not want to wait until my employment agreement expired in November of 2015 to retire from my position as Town Manager in York," Yandow said in a prepared statement.

Yandow gave no reason for making that decision last year, nor did he give a reason for choosing Oct. 3 as his tentative retirement date.

"Because Oct. 3, 2014 ,was over one year away, I decided to wait until the first meeting in January 2014, to announce my retirement," Yandow said in his statement.

The nine months notice gives the board adequate time to conduct an orderly process to find a new town manager and have another town employee start the operating and capital budgeting processes for fiscal year 2016, he said.

In his statement, he said he would have no further comment on his retirement.

In other business

Selectmen held off on making a decision whether to put a $5.5 million warrant article on the May ballot for purchase of the estimated 100-acre Davis property.

Selectmen will hold a work session in the near future, according to Nowell.

The board also held off on a decision whether to put the $325,000 purchase of the Hodgin parking lot on the ballot, saying additional information was needed on access.

The parking lot would be accessed through the driveway around Town Hall, which is on First Parish Church land.

Selectwoman Mary Andrews volunteered to meet with representatives of the First Parish Church.